What does “Alano” mean?
ALANO Clubs abound but what does ALANO actually mean? Is it a contraction of several words, i.e., Alanon, alcohol, etc. or what?
In the most basic sense Alano clubs do get their name from a contraction of Alcoholics and Anonymous.
AA discourages outside enterprises like club houses from using the "AA" name. But they still need a name that will convey a sense of what they do. Originally they were called "24 hour Clubs."
Some early clubs used the contracted Alcoholics and Anonymous for "Alanon Club." In 1951, when Al-Anon was starting up, that fellowship wanted to call themselves "AA Family Groups" but AA asked them not to use "AA" in their name to avoid problems with implied affiliation. After polling their membership they settled on the name of Al-Anon Family Groups. Lois W. described the name as being a contraction of the first syllables of each word. (
Lois Remembers pages 174 & 176)
The dash in the Al-Anon name was included, in part, to distinguish the fellowship from the existing Alanon clubs. (This is from the November, 1987 issue of the Al-Anon periodical
Forum)
One past Al-Anon delegate recalls that Bill W. encouraged Alanon clubs to instead call themselves Alano clubs to further the effort of avoiding confusion with Al-Anon and AA. (See
this link)
